Great Lakes

In 1970, young Ted McHugh begins working on the Howard G Stanton, a Great Lakes iron ore freighter docked in Chicago's Calumet River and ready to start the shipping season in early April, hauling iron ore from Minnesota to the steel mills along the southern shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Erie.

He makes friends with two deckhands and his cabinmate, Mike, a deckwatch. Mike is a skillful poker player who often wins. He and other mariners play poker every night in the officers' mess for several hours, where rank disappears. Mike, however, has an old enemy who resents losing too often and too much. Mike asks Ted to keep a promise that will not only test his faithfulness and courage but also threaten his life.

The story is one of adventure, relationships, suspense, and survival, set amid the sights, sounds, and storms of the Great Lakes.